Strange love
by Komillia
Summary: A strange love between Remus Lupin and a Hogwarts Professor


Strange love  
by Komillia  
  
------------------------  
  
Looking over her shoulder, she made sure that no one was in sight before carefully ascending up the stairs of the astronomy tower. Her hand touched the banister lightly and she shivered as she felt the cold wood against her fingertips. The sound of the wind blowing softly outside the stonewalls of Hogwarts could be heard. As she walked past a small window she could see colourful leaves lifted by the wind swirl around in the air. She smiled slightly to herself at the sight, autumn leaves always reminded her of the walks that her mother used to take with her.  
  
Finally, after what seemed like several hours, she reached the door on the top of the astronomy. Without hesitating, she twisted the golden doorknob and roughly pushed the old wooden door open. The door creaked as it opened and as the sound echoed through the classroom, someone stumbled and fell to the floor. Instinctively, she backed a step and pulled her wand.  
  
"Lumos!"  
  
The tip of her wand started to glow brightly. Pointing her wand towards a corner in the astronomy classroom, it provided her with enough light to see who was making a pathetic attempt to hide. Remus Lupin.  
  
"Lucrezia?"  
  
Hearing her name and seeing his face made her calm down and the stern expression on her face was replaced with a soft smile. Lucrezia lowered her wand slightly and then calmly walked over to a lamp that was standing on the teacher's desk. She whispered a few words and pointed her wand at the lamp. The lamp started to glow and, although it was small, filled the entire classroom with dim light. Lucrezia turned around and looked at Remus again. By now he had stood up again. Books and parchment were spread all around him in a mess, probably created by his clumsy fall to the floor. Lucrezia watched the expression on his face with an amused look.  
  
"I suppose you are trying to of a very good reason to excuse the fact that you're up here so late?" she said, pretending to be serious.   
  
"Well, I..." Remus started, but his voice faded as he didn't know what to say. Lucrezia smiled, turned around and sat down at the nearest chair.  
  
"Don't worry I won't tell on you," Lucrezia assured. In the corner of her eye she could see the surprised and relieved look on his face. "So where are your friends? James, Sirius... and Peter, right? You can tell them to come out of their hiding places now."  
  
"They are asleep in the Gryffindor tower," Remus replied calmly and started to gather the books and parchments on the floor. Lucrezia raised her left brow slightly. To her, it seemed odd to see Remus without his friends. They were always together, during classes and even afterwards. This was probably the first time she had seen him without his friends. She was tempted to ask why they weren't with him but decided not to. It wasn't her business.  
  
Silence filled the classroom, only interrupted now and then when she shifted to another sitting position in the chair or when Remus found another quill that he had dropped. Attempting to break the silence, Lucrezia looked out the window and at the dark, night sky.   
  
"The stars are really beautiful tonight, aren't they?" she said, gesturing at the window. Remus put down his books on a table and quietly walked over to her side so that he could get a better look at the sky.  
  
"The moon is waxing," he said quietly with a hint of sadness in his voice. Lucrezia looked puzzled again.  
  
"You seem sad about it," she remarked, the words escaping from her mouth before she had a chance to think about it. Remus was quiet for a while. He sat down on a chair next to her and continued to look at the sky. She could swear that she heard him whisper "I am" but decided to leave it at that. Before another uncomfortable period of silence could start, he turned to her.  
  
"So, why did you come here?" he asked. "Isn't the astronomy tower a little far from the Ravenclaw tower?"  
  
Lucrezia wondered briefly how Remus could know that the Ravenclaw common room was located in a tower since only Ravenclaws were supposed to know about it's location.  
  
[Probably another thing that is on the list of his and his friends' rule breaking,] she thought to herself. Instead of asking him about it, she answered his question.  
  
"Everyone needs to find some peace and quiet sometimes."  
  
"Even if it means breaking the rules?"  
  
"Even perfects need a little peace and quiet," she answered. Her lips curved into a small smile for some reason.  
  
"I couldn't agree more," Remus replied and leaned back in the chair. Nothing more was said. Both sat quietly in their chairs, either gazing at the night sky or occupied with their own deep thoughts.  
  
HR  
  
It was the first of many times she met him in the astronomy tower. Sometimes she would be the first to arrive, other times she found him sitting there and reading when she arrived. Most of the time they sat quiet in each other's company, silence was no longer weird or uncomfortable. It was quite the opposite, she enjoyed not having to think of things to say.  
  
But one day Lucrezia opened the door to the classroom and found it that it was empty on people. It didn't bother her much at first, Remus would come later. But after three hours of reading the same two pages in her Transfiguration book and constantly listening for footsteps, she realized that he wouldn't come.   
  
Throwing her book down on a table, she got up from the chair and started to pace around the classroom. The silence, which she had found comforting when Remus was with her, suddenly seemed unbearable and suffocating. She wished so bad that the door to the classroom would creak and open, then reveal his tall form. But it didn't.  
  
[Calm down...] she told herself as she stopped pacing. [He probably forgot or something...]  
  
Deciding to go back to the Ravenclaw tower and get some sleep, Lucrezia walked over to the table and grabbed her book. As she turned around, she spotted the glowing, round moon shining brightly from it's place in the middle of the dark sky. Her eyes were fixed at the full moon, suddenly finding it fascinating for some reason. She remembered words that Remus had said the first time they had met in the classroom.  
  
"The moon is waxing."  
  
Pushing the thought aside, she forced herself to stop staring at the moon. Lucrezia turned around, walked through the door and shut it, leaving the astronomy classroom behind her.  
  
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Remus didn't come to the Astronomy tower the next night. Or the night after that. And the night after that. By now his absence was driving her crazy. She wasn't getting enough sleep because she spent several hours at night at the astronomy classroom waiting for him. Her friends constantly asked her where she went and what she was doing. Professor Flitwick quietly asked her if her prefect duties were taking to take it's toll on her. But she told them lies, said that she was just studying harder to get better grades. The whole excuse was rather contradicting as she failed a Potions test terribly. Whenever she actually tried to study, she found herself on a constant look out for Remus. She couldn't see him anywhere, not even a quick glimpse.  
  
The fourth night Lucrezia found herself in the astronomy classroom again, slouched in a chair and making a poor attempt to finish an essay about some kind of rebellion. Her lack of sleep was starting to get to her and she was struggling to keep her eyes open. But she failed and soon she was half lying over a desk, sound asleep.  
  
She dreamt of cold wind, stars and the full moon. She floated in the air, without casting a spell or using a broom. She breathed cold air and felt peace, freedom, calm, all at the same time.  
  
Minutes or hours later, she opened her eyes and found herself staring right into Remus'. He was sitting on a chair next to her and was eyeing her as if it was the first time he had seen her. Lucrezia didn't move from her position, even though her back and neck hurt. She opened her mouth slightly, but didn't know what to say. All she did was to stare back at him. Suddenly silence was comforting again, not suffocating and overwhelming like it had been while Remus was gone.  
  
"Where were you?" Lucrezia asked quietly. Her voice was barely a whisper.   
  
"I went away," Remus answered softly. It was all that he said. Upon seeing his face, hearing his voice, Lucrezia felt a strange feeling inside her and her heart beat faster. A sensation of happiness spread through her, one that she hadn't felt in a long time.  
  
[Everything's okay now...] a small, happy and na 


End file.
